April 6th – 6:50 AM
Maggie was awake and laying on her left side in Bianca's bed, facing her best friend who was still asleep. She wasn't sure if she had slept at all during the night, if she had, it was only for a minute or two. Though she lacked sleep, she felt oddly rested and relaxed. Now, with the sunlight clearly bringing the glow to the room that meant the day was starting, she rested here, staring at the source of what had relaxed her….Bianca.
Since they had moved to Paris together, this was the second time she had watched her friend sleep. The first being when Bianca had received the news of Edmund's murder, which, as it turned out, connected to the reason for this second time. Yes, it seemed, all the recent pain in this pair's life could be tracked back to one source, Jonathan Lavery.
Both Bianca and Maggie had tried blaming themselves for being the origin of all the problems; Maggie for being with Jonathan and Bianca for feeling as if she drove Maggie to him. In reality though, all the evil that had come of it rested squarely on Jonathan's shoulders.
As Maggie had spent the entirety of the night and day before lying in her room, contemplating this, she had asked her self numerous times who really was to blame for everything that had happened? Every time the answer was the same, it all came back to Jonathan. No matter if she had dated him or not, he would have gone after Ryan and Greenlee for whatever his reasons were. The only things that would have changed if she hadn't dated him were he would have never had a chance to hit her or had a reason to threaten Bianca and Miranda. Nothing else really would have been different.
In the end, their parts in this whole drama had been Maggie's poor choice of when to confess her love to Bianca and Bianca's not explaining sooner why she and Babe had been in that hotel bed together. Of an equal importance in Maggie's mind, but both were forgivable offenses.
With Jonathan dead, Maggie now felt as if the healing could finally commence in earnest. She had been winning small battles again and again in her fight to purge herself of him. Changing her hair back to its natural color…not wearing any of the clothes he bought her…and most important of all, spending time with Bianca, something he had heavily disapproved of.
So here they were now. The specter of evil gone, the healing process starting, where would they would go from here was the big question. And as Maggie lay in this bed, staring at a peaceful, sleeping Bianca, that question loomed over her like a giant question mark. She knew it was too early to make any life changing decisions, but the time was approaching even faster where she was going to have to confront head on how she felt about her raven haired friend.
She glanced at the clock again and saw it was 7:00. As much as she would love to stay in bed all day staring at Bianca, she needed to get her life started again. As quietly as possible, she slipped out of bed, not wanting to wake her friend. Once she knew she had been successful, she smiled a satisfied grin at her victory. Then, as softly as possible, she leaned over and kissed Bianca's forehead, and followed that with a barely audible, "Thank you for always being there for me."
Turning to her right, she walked to the master bathroom and stopped to freshen up for the morning. She grabbed a hair band, and pulled her hair back into a pony tail. She leaned forward and took a closer look in the mirror at herself. "Wow Stone…" she thought, "two nights of next to no sleep and you could pack a weeks worth of clothes in the bags under your eyes."
She finished her business and went to see if the littlest member of their trio was awake yet. She slowly opened the door and peaked around the corner to find a pair of eyes staring back at her over the bars on the crib. The face quickly smiled and the hands let go of the railing just long enough to smack together in a clap.
"Hey sweetness!" Maggie said as she closed the bathroom door into the nursery behind her. "How is my favorite Munchie Munch doing today huh?" She lifted the little girl out of her crib and gave her a tight hug and a kiss on the cheek. "Gosh, I haven't seen you since…wow…I haven't seen you since before I left for class the other night! I can't believe I haven't seen you in almost 2 days!"
Maggie turned towards the changing table and laid Miranda down to change her and prepare her for the day. It amazed her how much she really had missed seeing Miranda in that time.
Once the little girl was dressed, Maggie picked her up and gave her another tight hug, holding her cheek to cheek. "Ok honey, why don't you and I head downstairs to the kitchen, and I think we'll make your mommy and I some coffee, and maybe, just maybe we'll even remember to feed you!" she said as she tickled Miranda's cheek.
Miranda giggled and pulled her head down into her shoulders to try to escape the dreaded tickling finger.
April 6th – 7:30 AM
Bianca's eyes slowly opened…took a long blink…and opened again. There was still some of the sleep fuzz around the edges, but she could see enough of the room to tell the other side of the bed was empty. It took a few seconds of her brain trying to wake up before she realized what that meant.
It came back to her slowly. Jonathan…the cave…telling Maggie…Maggie crawling into bed with her….Maggie was gone, that was what was missing from her bed. She lifted her head and looked around the room, but there was no sign of her.
Spotting that the clock said 7:30, she surmised that Maggie had already gotten up for the day. She got out of bed, slipped on a robe and slippers, and shuffled off to Miranda's room to check on her. Seeing that her daughter was already gone from her crib, she figured it safe to assume the two ladies in her life had already started their day.
Having woken up with time to spare for once, she decided a morning shower would be nice. She headed off to do just that, to prepare for another fun-filled day of running Cambias Industries in her daughter's name.
April 6th - 7:40 AM
Maggie had already downed half a cup of coffee in the hopes of giving herself some energy. It seemed to be helping, but not a lot.
Just as she finished prepping a travel mug of coffee for Bianca to take to work, she heard the water of the master bathroom's shower start up. She glanced at the clock on the microwave, and said aloud to Miranda, "Wow, I think it's a miracle. Your mommy got up with more than 15 minutes to kill before Patrick gets here!"
With the travel mug ready, Maggie took the whistling kettle off the stove, and poured the water into the bowl of oatmeal that sat waiting for it. "You know Munchie, if I'm not careful, I'm going to look like I actually know what I'm doing around here."
Miranda rocked back and forth in her high chair, not caring what Maggie was saying, so long as the food she could see was delivered soon.
After fanning the oatmeal for a few moments, Maggie walked over and sat down in front of Miranda to begin feeding her breakfast. Since mentioning Patrick earlier, she had been thinking about him. She knew she was going to have talk to him about everything that happened at some point, but she wasn't sure if she was up for going over it all again so soon, but she knew she had to thank him for staying with Bianca all day yesterday. For now, her biggest battle would be getting more of the oatmeal in Miranda than on her.
April 6th – 8:10 AM
Bianca padded down the staircase in her stockings, seeing no reason to put on her heels until she had to. With everything that had been going on, she hadn't had time to send out her suits to the cleaners lately, and she was getting down to just knee length skirts and jackets. The jackets she didn't mind, but the skirts meant higher heels than she normally liked, and exposing her legs, which she was not overly fond of either.
Once at the bottom of the stairs, she slipped on her shoes and headed towards the kitchen to see if Maggie and Miranda were there. The click-click-click of her heels on the wooden floor of the entryway was driving her slowly insane, but she would get used to it.
She passed through the archway to the dining room, and could immediately see Maggie sitting in front of Miranda in the kitchen, spoon feeding her breakfast to her. Maggie was smiling and chatting happily away to Miranda, who had as much food on her grinning face, as she probably had inside her tummy.
"Hey you two….you were up early this morning."
Maggie turned and looked at Bianca with a big smile on her face. "Morning sleepy head." She turned her attentions back to feeding Miranda. "I got up around 7, stopped to check-in on a certain someone, and found she was more than ready to get up for the day. So I figured why not?"
Bianca walked over to Miranda, and leaned down to kiss the top of her head. "Good morning Munchie." She stood next to her daughter, stroking her hair with her left hand, while she finally got a straight on look at Maggie. There were bags under her eyes, but not anything to abnormal for someone in a pre-med program at school. Her hair was pulled back in a pony tail, letting her get a clear look at all of Maggie's facial features. Bianca couldn't put her finger on it, but something about Maggie was just…different today.
Maggie finally felt the eyes on her and looked up at Bianca. She got a self-conscious grin and chuckled out a, "What? What are you looking at?" to her friend.
Bianca grinned and looked back down at her daughter. "Nothing…I don't know…you just seem…different today somehow."
"Different? How?" Maggie inquired as she scraped the last of the food on to a spoon for Miranda.
"I don't know…maybe 'relieved' is a good word…or 'relaxed'."
"Well, yeah, I'm kind of feeling both to tell the truth. In case you hadn't heard, it seems the big bad wolf is dead. The townspeople might feel some relief after that."
Bianca winced at the analogy, but didn't say anything. Maggie always had a tendency to deal with her problems through humor, and it appeared they were at that stage now. "Is there any coffee?" she asked, trying to change the subject.
"Yep. And I already filled a travel mug for you to take to work with you."
"Wow, you've been the busy bee this morning haven't you?"
"Even slopped the hog." she said, as she wiped the oatmeal from around the corners of Miranda's mouth.
Bianca's jaw dropped, and her eyes went wide. "My daughter is not a hog!" After a few more seconds of astonishment, she stood up straight, took on an air of superiority, and uttered, "She is a Kane woman, if she has food on her face, it's a fashion statement."
Maggie leaned close to Miranda's ear, and faux-whispered, "Wow, she almost sounded like she bought into that herself."
Miranda giggled at Maggie's breath hitting her ear, and she threw up her hands to scratch her ear and protect it from further assaults.
Bianca smiled. She was glad to see Maggie smiling and laughing, but she couldn't tell if this was a front she was putting on or not. Somehow she was doubtful that one day of being locked in your bedroom, and a night of sleeping with your best friend would cure the hurt, pain and confusion she had been feeling not even forty-eight hours ago. "Maggie….I hate to bring it up, but….are you sure you're ok with me going back to work today? It's not too late for me to change my plans and stay home."
Maggie grinned at her. "Thanks for the concern…really….but…." her face took on a more serious tone. "I can't let this set me back…not now…not when I was just getting over everything he had done to me."
"No one would blame you if you took a few more days to yourself."
"I would. I just got into school. I'm not going to start messing things up this early, especially not because of……him."
Bianca could almost hear the venom drip off that final word. "Well…ok, but what about Miranda? Do you want me take her to work today so you can study and do your work?"
Maggie grinned and reached out with her left hand and stroked the back of the little girl's head. Miranda was smiling and kicking her legs back and forth. "If it's ok with you, I'll go ahead and resume my nanny duties, I think. I didn't realize until I saw her this morning how much she adds to my day."
Bianca smiled a warm, loving smile at the two girls. "Of course I don't have a problem with that. If you feel up to it, than you do it."
"All settled then!" Maggie looked over at the clock and got out, "And just in time since…." The buzzer for the downstairs door went off. "Patrick will be buzzing for you at any second." she finished.
Bianca walked over to Maggie and took both of her hands into hers and looked her squarely in the eyes. "He can wait a minute. I just need to know one last time…you are ok with me going?"
Maggie looked up at Bianca, who stood higher than usual in her heels. "I'll be fine…I promise. Now, you go to work and buy a company, or whatever it is you do all day."
Bianca leaned forward and planted a light kiss on Maggie's forehead, and then in turn leaned down and kissed her daughter. "Do you need me to send Patrick back after he takes me in?"
"Naw…I don't plan on going anywhere today that I can't walk to, and I need to get my homework done for class tonight. Do tell him I said hi though, and that I will talk to him very soon."
"Not a problem." Bianca started to walk out through the archway, as Maggie picked up Miranda out of her high chair so they could follow Bianca to the door. Bianca stopped and turned to look back at her friend, "You're sure?"
"GO!" Maggie bellowed as she walked up to Bianca, turned her around with her free hand and started pushing on her back.
"Fine! Fine! You don't need to shove!"
They arrived at the front door, Bianca grabbed her briefcase from the table, and her coat from the rack in the corner. She exited the apartment and pushed the button for the elevator as Maggie stood with Miranda in the door way and waved "bye-bye" to mommy as Bianca got on the elevator. They watched as the doors closed and Bianca said quickly, "I'll call and check on you later!"
The elevator gone, Maggie shut the front door and turned to walk to her apartment. As she did so, she looked lost in thought for a moment, finally turning her head to Miranda. "You know…I just realized your mommy's wearing a skirt today. She should do that more often…her legs look good in skirts."
The girls walked off through the dining room for a fun filled day of studying.
April 16th - Evening
"You're sure about this?" Bianca asked.
"I'm here aren't I?"
"I know, but…it just seems so soon."
"So soon? I can't stop living my life Bianca just because my psychopath ex-boyfriend is dead. Never mind it's been almost 2 weeks now. I have to do something besides go to school and hide in my apartment all the time."
"I know, but …."
"I'm sorry for Ryan, and I'm sorry for everyone Jonathan hurt, but that's all I feel at this point."
"Ok ok."
"Besides, Patrick is so excited we are finally coming over for dinner. It's all he's talked about for two days."
The cab pulled up in front of the address they had given the driver. Bianca paid him as Maggie stepped on to the sidewalk holding Miranda in her arms.
Patrick appeared as if from nowhere. "Ah, I am so glad you two made it." He looked over the cab with an arched eyebrow. "I still wish you would have let me come and pick you up."
"Not on your own time you don't." Bianca said as she walked to the trunk with the cabbie to retrieve Miranda's stroller.
"Yes, but Miss Montgomery…"
Bianca shot him a look "How many times do I have to tell you, Miss Montgomery during work hours! I'll let that one slide, but you have to call me Bianca in the off hours."
Maggie chuckled and elbowed Patrick. "Gee, this sounds familiar."
Patrick took the stroller and opened it up while mumbling, "You two are going to be the death of me."
The quartet rode up in the elevator, Bianca and Maggie chatting about how gorgeous Patrick's neighborhood was and Patrick would mumble an affirmative, "mmhmm" every so often.
Bianca and Maggie both leaned backwards, and looked at each other behind Patrick's back with puzzled looks about his sudden silence. Finally they leaned forward again, and joined him in his silence.
The elevator finally dinged, notifying them that their ride was at an end. The foursome exited the elevator and walked down the hall a short distance to Patrick's apartment door. He took a deep breath and muttered under his breath, "Here we go."
He unlocked the door on a spacious apartment, larger than either girl imagined, and Patrick called out, "Giulia. Sono qui."
A very tall, slender, dark headed woman walked out of a room into the entry hallway, and immediately the girls were assaulted by a flurry of Italian words. They were both grabbed by the shoulders and kissed on both cheeks. Miranda had her cheeks pulled on until it seemed her eyes would bug out.
Through a think accent, Maggie heard her name and it was followed by an onslaught of words, which Patrick tried to keep up with in translating. "Maggie…it is a pleasure to meet you…Patrick has told me all about you…you are more beautiful than he said…that is my husband for you, too somber and not enough zest for life…I am going to keep talking, because I know he feels obligated to translate every word…".
Giulia turned her head and blew Patrick an exaggerated kiss, which made him chuckle. She turned now to look at Bianca, and Patrick said something to his wife that made her smile broadly. She began speaking French to Bianca, which seemed to relieve her a great deal. Though the words were similar, Patrick still translated for Maggie's sake so she wouldn't feel left out.
"I actually caught one or two words!" Maggie said, beaming a proud smile.
Patrick smiled at her. "Ah, so you are not as slow as I first thought!"
Maggie suspected he was starting to enjoy being punched in the arm for his comments.
After a brief tour of the apartment, everyone gathered in the kitchen, while Giulia finished preparing dinner. Bianca presented two bottles of some very expensive wine she had brought with her to Giulia, who was visibly impressed. She showed them to Patrick who in turn muttered something along the lines of "dear lord." Maggie guessed they must be good to rattle Patrick, but to her, wine was wine.
Patrick opened the bottles while Giulia stirred the pasta. She looked at Maggie and Bianca, muttered something in Italian which made Patrick laugh. He turned to look at the pair from Pine Valley and filled them in. "She is concerned that you two don't eat well, you are so skinny and short." Giulia said a few more things in Italian that Patrick translated, though he grimaced and stepped back from Maggie. "She is not sure how you will ever have a child with those hips."
Maggie smiled a sweet, yet unsettling, smile at Patrick. "Tell her I appreciate her concern, but I will cross that bridge when I come to it."
Patrick was concerned by the smile, but translated anyway. Giulia laughed and said something to him that made him turn and walk towards the cabinet across the room. On his way there, he was treated to another punch in the arm. He stopped, looked at Maggie, and asked, "Could you at least change arms once in awhile so I don't bruise?"
"Nope."
There was barely any table visible under the amount of food that had been laid out for the honored guests. Bianca and Maggie sat across from each other, Miranda in her mother's lap, while Patrick and Giulia sat at either end of the table.
As they all got settled, Giulia served her and Patrick modest helpings, but gave the girls helpings that almost overflowed off their plates, and made their eyes bug out. They looked from the plates, to each other, and back down to their plates. Giulia repeated, "Mangi! Mangi!" over and over, which Patrick told the girls meant, "Eat! Eat!"
Bianca smiled and said to Patrick, "So, I doubt she is going to want to hear I am trying to watch my figure?"
"I'm not sure that sentence exists in the Italian language actually." he replied.
As the food and wine got started, the conversation began to flow as it does when people break bread together. Patrick and Bianca kept trying to translate everything being said, but it was hard to keep up with so many streams of conversation going on. Maggie finally told them not to worry, and only translate what was being said to her directly.
Miranda tried taking a bite of every food item that passed over her mother's place, but got more sauce on her face than anything. Giulia finally stepped over and asked Bianca if she could hold the little girl for awhile.
"Now you've you done it! She will be wanting to be have another one! We've already raised two." Patrick moaned.
"How did the two of you meet?" Maggie inquired.
"Well, she tells the story much more fully than I, but since she can't relay it in English….it was when I was in the military, I was in Italy for a while on assignment. I saw her from across a room, and…well, you can imagine the rest of the story. We have been together ever since."
Giulia asked Patrick what was being discussed in French, and he replied. She smiled and looked from Bianca to Maggie and finally back to Bianca. She asked a question in French that made Bianca immediately blush and get suddenly fascinated with twirling some pasta around her fork.
Maggie noticed, and looked to Patrick for a translation, but saw that he had tensed up. "What did she say?"
"Um…nothing, nothing, don't worry about it."
Bianca finally replied to Giulia, in a very lengthy dose of French. Maggie had been in France long enough now she had learned a few words, and she picked out for sure both their names, "couple", "knows" and "future". She wanted to ask what exactly what had been asked and replied, but decided to drop it for now.
Through Bianca's whole answer, Giulia had just nodded in the affirmative, and glanced at Maggie every so often. She would just smile back, but she had to admit that it did make her a bit uneasy.
Dinner slowly returned to what passed for normal, but Maggie made a mental note to follow up on this particular part of the conversation at a later time.
Dinner over, and the table cleared, everyone was again gathered in the kitchen. Bianca holding Miranda, Giulia rinsing off dishes and Maggie bringing in the left over items from the dining room.
Once the table was cleared, and the dishes stacked, Giulia again took Miranda from Bianca, and they got into a deep conversation about children being raised in Paris. Feeling out of place, Maggie went to see where Patrick had gotten off to.
She spotted him on the small balcony outside the living room, and went out to see what he was up to. She noticed as she opened the door, his left hand quickly shot down to his side, but she didn't make much of it.
"What are you doing out here?"
Patrick shrugged, but said nothing.
"Patrick…are you ok?"
He nodded "yes", but still said nothing.
Maggie leaned on the railing, a suspicion starting to sink in. "You know…you can't hold it in forever."
Patrick opened his mouth, a massive exhale escaping, along with cigarette smoke.
Maggie shook her head and laughed. "You're hiding it from Giulia aren't you?"
"She thinks I quit years ago, but I still allow myself one day, and only one a day, and it is always after dinner."
"And you hide it from her?"
"Yes." he said, as he retrieved an ashtray out of the plotted plant in the corner. He snubbed out the cigarette he had in his left hand, and put the ashtray back. "She had me quit for my health…and she is right, but…I just hold on to that last one a day habit for memories."
"Patrick, Patrick, Patrick…I'm so ashamed of you."
"Please don't tell her, ok?"
A grin crossed Maggie's face. "Ok, I won't….but you have to do something for me."
Patrick hung his head, and asked in a defeated tone, "What?"
"Tell me what the conversation in French was at dinner, after I asked how you two had met."
Patrick sighed. "I figured that was it." He looked back over his shoulder, and saw that Bianca and his wife were seated on the couches, far away from the doors, so they would not over hear this conversation. "Giulia…..wanted to know how you and Bianca became a couple."
"Yeah…that's what I thought it was."
"Bianca informed her you were not yet a couple, but maybe someday, who knows in the future."
"And….did she say if she wanted us to be a couple."
Patrick stared out at the city for a moment. "Should I be the one to tell you that, or should she?"
Maggie turned around, leaned back to rest on the railing, and placed her hands behind her to support herself. She stared through the glass in the doors at Bianca, who was facing her direction on the couch. "I….I know what she has said in the past, but…so much more has happened…." Bianca spotted Maggie looking in and smiled at her, Maggie returned the gesture. Maggie again turned around to look out over the city with Patrick.
Patrick turned his head and stared at Maggie. "You love her….don't you?"
"With all my heart."
"Then, why haven't you done anything about it?"
"It's….it's complicated Patrick."
"What is so complicated? You love her, she obviously loves you…why not become a couple?"
"Because…I don't know what type of love it is. And…I don't know if I'm gay, or if it's just her. There's so much I don't know."
"Do you really have to know more than that you love her?"
Maggie turned her head to look at Patrick. "What did she say Patrick? Please tell me."
Patrick sighed, and pulled a pack of cigarettes from his pocket and lit one.
"I thought you had only one a day."
"Normally yes, but this is what you do to me. You drive me to two!"
"Patrick, look at it this way, she said it…out loud…if I could speak French, I would already know what was said, but I don't. So all you are doing is repeating what was said in front of me."
Patrick took another drag off of his cigarette. He looked down at it and studied the ember on the end. "She said…..she said that she hopes someday you two will be a couple, but that you were the one who had to let her know the time was right."
Maggie nodded. "Thank you Patrick…and your cigarette secret is safe with me." She moved over and wrapped both her arms around him. "Your daughters must have turned out to be wonderful people…I would like to meet them someday."
Patrick wrapped his right arm around Maggie's shoulders. "No you wouldn't. Imagine my wife and I combined into one person…they are like whirling dervishes of destruction!"
Maggie laughed and squeezed Patrick tighter. "I couldn't have hoped to have found a better friend when I moved here." She let go and stepped back. "Now….what's this about you and the military?"
Bianca and Maggie stood in the front hall saying their good-byes to Giulia, as Patrick had already headed down to get them a cab. She reluctantly gave Miranda back to Bianca, and hugged them both in one big hug. She said some things to Bianca in French, that again made her blush, especially when she had nodded her head towards Maggie. Maggie tried to pretend she hadn't noticed.
It was then Maggie's turn for the hugs and kisses. Giulia said something in French to her that made Bianca's eyes light up. "She says it was a pleasure meeting you, and hopes that we will both come again. She also hopes that Patrick's smoking on the balcony didn't bother you too much. He's so cute how he thinks she doesn't know."
Maggie got embarrassed and laughed. "Um…could you tell her I had a lovely time, and that I have no idea what she is talking about?"
Bianca relayed the message and Giulia just laughed and winked at Maggie once she had heard it all. Again Bianca translated for her. "Don't worry, I am not mad at him. He gave up his serious habit for me, I think I can ignore his one a day, but try not to drive him to a second one again."
Maggie looked at Bianca with some astonishment. "Damn! She's good!"
Down on the street, Bianca and Maggie said their goodbyes to Patrick and thanked him for a lovely evening. As Bianca was having the stroller put in the trunk, Patrick hugged Maggie. "Think about it….are you happy with this…or do you want more?" he whispered in her ear.
She whispered back, "I'll think on it…promise. Thank you Patrick." After she broke away, and was getting in the cab, she stopped for a brief moment and turned to Patrick. "By the way…I didn't tell her, but she knows about the smoking."
As the girls drove away in their cab, they turned to wave to Patrick. Maggie commented, "Wow…you can see how pale that made him even from here!"